Student No.

R1905D8558054

The new Marketing Manager’s Leadership Approach at New Vision Printing & Publishing
Company Limited

February 13, 2021

1 Introduction

This article explains a new Marketing Manager’s considerations and approaches in choosing and

applying a leadership style, as well as the actions the took make his leadership effective, at New

Vision Group (NVG), a 30-year-old public multi-media company in the business of newspaper

production, broadcasting (television and radio), commercial printing, advertising, and

distribution services. The NVG is listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) since 2004

(New Vision Printing & Publishing Company Limited, 2019, p.60).

A summary review of NVG, with respect to corporate purposes, governance, management,

business and operational environment, strategic challenges, internal resources and capabilities,

and performance, is given. The section on Main Concepts of Leadership, gives a literature

review of leadership and management theory and practice, under the sub-headings of (a)

Leadership and Leadership Activities, (b) Strategic Leadership Frameworks (c) Leadership

Styles and Theories, and (d) Power Bases and use of Power, followed by an evaluation of

selected leadership approaches and an elaboration of the new marketing manager’s leadership

approaches. The Marketing Manager (MM) concludes, his chosen leadership style at the NVG

is one the most appropriate and basing on that, he elucidates several leadership actions taken.

In June 2019, a year before the new MM came on board, the NVG crafted new, sassy, Vision

and Mission statements which are, respectively , “A trusted content hub of choice” and “To

generate and distribute content that is useful to and advances society” and amended its Values

to include “Customer-centricity” (New Vision Printing & Publishing Company Limited, 2020).

As may be seen from Table 3 in the Appendix hereto, the changes in mission and vision were

subtle, but should perhaps be understood in terms of the complexity of the internet-driven

changes taking place in the media industry and the emergency of alternative journalism and

social digital media. NVG’s new strategic direction was “premised on a deliberate investment in
digital capacity to deliver content to the diverse audiences that have evolved in the media

market” (p.18). The focus was financially viability, notwithstanding the adverse negative impact

of measures to combat COVID-19 that disrupted the newspaper circulation system. The NVG

Annual Report (New Vision Printing & Publishing Company Limited, 2020, p.29) mentioned an

uncertain and significant change, and the need for new skills in changed market conditions and

set working through this complex situation as a priority.

NVG’s Board has 11 directors of whom 10 are non-executive and out of these, 5 are

independent (i.e., directors do not represent shareholder interests on the Board ), which creates a

good balance of power, independent thinking, and diversity of ideas.

The NVG is a dominant player in Uganda’s media market buy faces fierce competition from the

National Media Group. Sixty percent (60% ) of NVG revenues (detailed in Tables 1 and 2 in

the Appendix) come from advertising , with the rest split approximately evenly between

newspaper sales and commercial printing. The newspaper circulation market in Uganda is

affected by demographic trends- an increasingly younger population with low newspaper

reading appetite- and technological factors- a new trend of social media which provides

alternative and free sources of content for the public. One of the key threats to NVG’s business

is “Disruptive technologies altering media consumption habits and the operation of the media

mark” ( New Vision Printing & Publishing Company Limited, 2020, p.20).

Uganda is stable democracy, and the fundamentals of the political and social environment (free

press, liberalisation of the media space) are unlikely to change for the worse in the mediums

term. The NVG, in which the Government of Uganda to a has a shareholding of 53% , is likely

to be insulated from the adverse effects of the social political changes . The main driver of

change for NVG’s business is technology and the NVG is well placed in technology adaptation.

The new strategic plan takes cognisance of the worldwide changing patterns in media
consumption and the fast technological changes that provide customers with many choices of

providers of content. NVG plans to “to automate other (non-content) key functions and

implement seamless integration across all systems to ensure accurate business reporting”(New

Vision Printing & Publishing Company Limited, 2020, p.2). The automation plan incorporates

the marketing function which could place the jobs of 57 employees, constituting about 10% of

the workforce, in jeopardy. According to New Vision Printing & Publishing Company Limited,

2020, p.80), NVG owns intellectual property assets such as copyrights, trademarks, and names

that have enhanced business value and enabled NVG to create both a unique products and

services identity in addition to enhancing competitive edge in the industry.

Capron & Mitchell (n.d.) as cited by Thompson, Gamble, Peteraf & Strickland (2017), aver that

“A new strategy nearly always involves acquiring new resources and capabilities”. In fulfilment

of its new strategic direction of harnessing new technologies to safeguard business sustainability,

the NVG has achieved significant milestones of digitizing its content consumption through

separate digital content applications and alternatives that attract a larger demographic.(New

Vision Printing & Publishing Company Limited, 2020, p.27).

NVG has implemented a low-cost leadership strategy and thus, as contented by is able to use its

cost advantage to charge lower prices or to enjoy higher profit margins (Unicaf, n.d.). For the

long term NVG has adopted a combination of concentrated growth and innovation as their grand

strategies which as averred by Unicaf (n.d., p.4-6), are necessary to for achieving sustained

corporate growth and profitability.

2 Main concepts of strategic leadership

2.1 Leadership Theories and Styles

Scholars such as Amanchukwu, Stanely & Olulube (2015), have articulated a multiplicity of

leadership styles and theories such as (a) transformational, (b) transactional, (c) autocratic (“Do

as I say”), (d) bureaucratic, (e) charismatic (f) democratic/participative (“What do you think?”)
(g) laissez-faire and (h) transactional. Other styles are (i) Coaching Style (“Consider this”), (j)

authoritative Style ( “Follow me”), (k) affiliative style (“People come first”), (l) Pacesetting

Style (“Do as I do”).

A transformational leader has the characteristics of personal influence and be inclination to trust

the staff wholly to accomplish set potential goals and aims. A charismatic leader has a

recognizable style which however but may be perceived less tangibly than other leadership

styles (Bell, 2013, as cited in Amanchukwu et al , 2015). Charismatic leaders inspire enthusiasm

in their teams and are energetic in motivating employees. The resulting excitement and

dedication from the teams is a huge asset to productivity and goal accomplishment. The negative

side of charismatic leadership is the huge confidence placed in the leader rather than in

employees. This can result in risk that a project or the entire organization may collapse if the

leader leaves. Additionally, a charismatic leader may come to believe in her own infallibility,

even in the face of warnings from others about the path s/he is on; feelings of indomitability can

ruin a team or an organization. Democratic leaders make the final decisions, but involve team

members in the decision-making process, encourage creativity, and team-member engagement,

which results elevated job satisfaction and high productivity, which also aids development of

employees’ skills, and makes team members feel par part of the big picture which has the

potential to motivate them beyond just a financial reward. The risk of democratic leadership its

propensity to falter in crisis situations.

Fiedler developed, in 1967, a contingency theory in which Position power, Task structure and

Leader-member relations as the crucial dimensions for effectiveness of leadership styles

(Introduction to Leadership and Practise (n.d.), citing Robbins et al (2015).

2.2 Strategic Leadership Frameworks

David Dinwoodle (2014, January 27) suggests a strategic leadership framework comprising of

the following two groups of actions: (i) Strategy Formulation Process Actions and (2) Actions
related to dealing with challenges such as those arising from change, shaping culture, straddling

organisational boundaries, and leveraging polarities. The detailed actions and their importance

are elaborated Table 5 in the Appendix hereto.

Another framework, the Action-Centered Leadership model, by John Adair, which has proved

to be lasting approach, defined leadership in terms of three overlapping and interdependent

circles of Task, Team and Individual (Adair, 1973).

2.3 Leaders’ Power Bases

Leaders get their power from a range of sources which, as contented by Strategic Leadership

and Practice (n.d.) may be categorised into (i) Organisational ( legitimate power, Reward

Power, Coercive Power, and Information Power) and, (ii) Personal.( Referent Power and Expert

Power) According to Power and Politics(n.d., p.9), one of the key differences between leaders

and managers is the way they tend to use power. Managers tend to use least effective power

bases--coercive, legitimate, and reward perhaps because they are the easiest to implement, while

effective leaders prefer to use referent and/or expert power.

2.4 Leadership Traits

Strategic Leadership and Practice (n.d., p.4) avers that everyone can be a leader and that

leadership is changing from an autocratic, hierarchical model to an empowering, participatory

model and that the modern leadership thinking recognizes the potential and distinctive

contributions of all team members and further, that leadership is no longer viewed as a

combination of charisma and expertise owned by only a few people in the top echelons of an

organizational pyramid.

Leadership traits include integrity, maturity, energy, judgment, motivation, intelligence, and

expertise. Strategic Leadership and Practice (n.d., p.58) groups leadership traits into three broad

sets of capabilities: (a) technical skills (e.g., accounting or operations research) (b) cognitive
abilities (e.g. analytical reasoning or quantitative analysis) and (c) emotional intelligence (e.g.,

self-management and relationship-management and cited research (p.59 ) suggesting that

effective leaders have high levels of emotional intelligence (EI), leading to stronger job

performance across an extensive range of professions, with stronger effects for professions

requiring a lot of human interaction. However according to Strategic Leadership and Practice

(n.d., p.61-62) facets of EI such as empathy, and self- awareness, when held in high doses, may

lead to negative impacts. Striking a right balance is vital. From a moral standpoint, emotional

leadership could be good or bad. On one hand, emotional leaders can be altruistic, caring for the

general welfare of the company and its employees, and extremely principled while on the other

hand, they can be manipulative, selfish, and dishonest.

2.5 Leaders and their Activities

Strategic Leadership and Practice, n.d., p.60) avers that leadership is the process of transforming

organizations from what they are to what the leader would have them become, a definition that .

implies dissatisfaction with the status quo, a vision of what should be, and a process for bringing

about change etc. Bohoris, G.A and Vorria, E.P (2010) opined that leadership and management

are often considered practically overlapping concepts. Power and Politics (n.d.) avers that

leadership: (a) requires goal congruence, (b) focuses on downward influence, (c) minimizes

importance of lateral and upward influence and, (d) focuses on answers. According to some

scholars, leadership traits include charisma, persuasiveness, inspirational ability, skill in

communicating, verbal eloquence, emotionally involvement, vigour, enthusiasm, humility and,

compassion. Other scholars such as Subba & Kumar (n.d.) (citing Warren G. Bennis ), presents

the differences between managers and leaders as shown the Table 6 in the Appendix hereto.

Leadership goes beyond management because it has higher expectations for performance. In

managerial leadership, the leader aims to get superior performance from the group. This involves
many additional considerations, such as raising motivation to perform, developing skills and

abilities, and improving work processes. The leader attempts to move the entire group ahead. To

lead means to strive for higher and better results and to believe in the potential of your

employees. Leaders are change agents whose success is measured by how effectively they

formulate and implement a strategic vision and mission. Strategic Leadership and Practice(n.d.,

p.60) identifies three interdependent leadership activities that must be continually reassessed for

organizations to succeed, which are (1) setting a direction, (2) designing the organization, and

(3) nurturing a culture dedicated to excellence and ethical behaviour.

2.6 The Marketing Manager’s approach and activities at the NVG

Organizations look for managers who can manage effectively and efficiently. But each manager

is unique with his or her style depending on the situation and inclined paradigm. Managerial

style is the pattern of thinking, feeling and behaviour that a manager uses to deal with people and

situation. Ukaidi (2016) undertook a statistical study of the effectiveness of three leadership

styles (autocratic, laissez faire and democratic) on a firm’s performance at two Nigerian

Universities and concluded that the democratic leadership style contributed more significantly to

organizational performance than the autocratic and laissez faire style. However, Fiedler’s

contingency theory avers that a leader needs to evaluate Position power, Task structure and

Leader-member relations of the team or organisation to inform the adoption of an effective the

leadership style (Introduction to Leadership and Practise (n.d.), citing Robbins et al (2015).

The NVG Annual Report of 2020, (New Vision Printing & Publishing Company Limited, 2020,

p.29), highlighted the need for new skills to enable the business to operate in the changed market

conditions in an uncertain future and recognized that responding to this situation with the

appropriate innovation and creativity was essential. Coming on board under these conditions,

new marketing manager was motivated by the opportunity to apply his leadership acumen to the

challenges ahead.
The marketing department of NVG had a staff compliment of 57 when new Marketing Manager

came on board . Direct reports to the MM were three Account Managers (Government, Business

and Non-Profits) , a Research Unit head and an Administrative staff head. Each Account

Manager had a group of Marketeers of about equal rank working for him, and these formed the

numerical bulk of the 57 employees. . The Marketeers were renumerated in a combination of

commission and salary basis while the rest of the staff were on salary only. The MM had powers

to hire and fire the Marketers but not the Account Managers , Research Unit Staff, or the Admin

staff.

Following a critical analysis of several aspects of the company (business sector, culture,

competitive environment, etc.) and of the Marketing Department (human resource, organisation

structure, the MM’s power organisational power bases, task structure ) and the Pros and Cons of

various leadership styles elaborated by Amanchukwu, Stanely & Olulube (2015), the MM

adopted a combination of democratic, transformational and transaction approaches. As a

democratic and transformational manager, the MM would always include account managers in

the decision-making, these being employees with extremely high levels of education, high

career aspirations that may go beyond than just a financial reward. The MM would make them

feel a part of something larger and meaningful. However, during crisis, the MM would take on a

more transactional , approach with all his employees. On the other hand, the MM would take

on more transactional stance when pushing the employees to meet targets. He would reward

those who exceed their targets and punish those who fail to do so should they fail to give

convincing reasons for their failure to do so.

Strategic Leadership and Practice (n.d., p.60) avers that leaders do the following: (1) set a

direction, (2) design the organization, and (3) nurture a culture dedicated to excellence and

ethical behaviour and, further notes that these activities are highly interdependent. Taking into

account that NVG is a 30-year-old organisation with an existing vision, mission, values and
culture, and the fact that the MM is accountable to the chief executive and ultimately to the

Board and shareholders, the MM will do the following: (a) confirm the department employees

understanding of the NVG strategic direction, set key performance indicators(KPIs), measures

and annual targets, including the changes (New Vision Printing & Publishing Company Limited,

2020) in the vision, mission, and strategies and how these translate to the department, (b) get

acquainted with codified company policies, rules, procedure, (c) applying emotional intelligence

skill, obtain insights into unwritten organisation culture and office politics and gauge the

general mood among the employees in the department and if necessary, take action to positively

influence it by for example, (d) test out his adopted leadership approach - a combination of

democratic, transformational and transaction approaches- and where necessary fine tune it to fit

part that he doesn’t have the power to change, (e) assess the MM organisational and personal

power bases and consolidate the power, taking into account the risks, as contended by Power and

Politics (n.d., p.9), of leaning too much on the least effective power bases of coercive,

legitimate, and reward powers and the positives using referent and expert power, (f) Asses the

quality and quantity of the department’s human resource and where necessary make changes

(using legitimate power) and/or make appropriate recommendations to the CEO, (g) review the

existing marketing strategy and plug any gaps (h) from an induction by the CEO and top

management, attending of management meeting and from reviewing of previous minutes of

management and department meetings, get a grasp on the urgent and important operational

issues in the company and keep them in focus to avoid crises.

3 Conclusion

The new Marketing Manager’s considerations and approach in choosing and applying a

leadership style as well as the actions he took to ensure effective leadership as a new senior

manager at New Vision Group (NVG) have been elucidated. The choice was informed by an

assessment of the NVG with respect to corporate purposes, governance, management, business
and operational environment, strategic challenges, internal resources and capabilities, and

performance and a review and critical analysis of relevant leadership theories and frameworks

underpinned by the new knowledge, skills and experience .It is concluded that, the wide array of

leadership approaches notwithstanding, the MM his chosen leadership style at the NVG is

appropriate.
 References
Adair, J. E. (1973). Action-centred leadership (pp. 07-084428). New York: McGraw-Hill.
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House%2C+Cottingham+Rd%2C+Corby%2C+Northants%2C+NN17+1TT&btnG=

Amanchukwu, R.N., Stanely, G.J. & Olulube, P.N. (2015). A Review of Leadership
Theories, Principles and Styles and Their Relevance to Educational Management
Management 2015, 5(1): 6-14 DOI: 10.5923/j.mm.20150501.02

Bohoris, G.A and Vorria, E.P (2010). Leadership vs Management:

Business Excellence/Performance Management View [pdf].
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David Dinwoodle . (2014, January 27). What is Strategic Leadership?

Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=pNv48OHOgeI

Introduction to Leadership and Practise (n.d.). Retrieved from:

.https://zm-vle-uu.unicaf.org/course/view.php?id=3836

Jabbar, A.A. and Hussein, A.M. (2017). The role of leadership in Strategic Management.
International Journal of Research- Granthaalayah, 5(5), 99-106.
https://doi.org/10.29121/granthaalayah.v5.i5.2017.1841 .

New Vision Printing & Publishing Company Limited. (2019). Annual Report 2018/2019.
Retrieved from: https://visiongroup.co.ug/

New Vision Printing & Publishing Company Limited. (2020). Annual Report 2019/2020.
Retrieved from: https://visiongroup.co.ug/

Power and Politics (n.d.). Retrieved from:

https://zm-vle-uu.unicaf.org
Strategic Leadership and Practice (n.d.) [[VitalSource Bookshelf version]]. Retrieved from
https://unicaf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781307217780/cfi/153!/4/2@100:0.00

Thompson, A. A., Gamble, J. E., Peteraf, M. A., & Strickland, A. (2017).

Concepts and Techniques for Crafting and Executing Strategy.

Ukaidi, C.U.A.(2016). The Influence of Leadership styles on Organizational Performance in

Nigeria. Global Journal of Human Resource Management.
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Unicaf (n.d.). Topic 3 – Overview Long-term Objectives and Strategies.

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 Appendix
Tables:
Table 1 Sales Breakdown by Actual Revenues, in Billion Shillings ( BShs)

2020 2019 2018 2017 2016

BShs BShs BShs BShs BShs
Advertising 53.7 58.1 56.5 56.2 58.4
Circulation 18.5 20.8 21.3 19.7 21.5
Commercial
18.4 9.9 11.6 9.4 12.1
Printing
Other Sales 1.1 1.3 1.2 0.8 0.6
Total 91.8 90.2 90.6 86.1 92.7

Table 2 Sales Breakdown ( By % of Total Revenue)

2020 2019 2018 2017 2016

59% 64% 62% 65% 63%
20% 23% 24% 23% 23%
20% 11% 13% 11% 13%
1% 1% 1% 1% 1%
100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Table 3: Mission and Vision

Former New (Approved as of June 30. 2019

Vision A globally respected African Media A trusted content hub of choice
powerhouse
that advances society
Mission To be a market focused, To generate and distribute content
performance-driven that is useful to and advances society
organization, managed on global
standards of
operational and financial efficiency.
Values Honesty  Integrity
Innovation  Innovation
Fairness  Customer-centricity
Courage  Courage
Excellence  Excellence
Zero tolerance to corruption  Zero tolerance to corruption
Social responsibility
 Social responsibility
 Table 5 Leadership Actions
Source: Adapted from David Dinwoodle (2014, January 27)
Action Importance
Internal and external As averred by Jabbar & Hussein (2017), strategic leadership needs
environment analysis evaluation and consideration of the business environment internally
and externally. The environment is continuously changing in a
complex and very inter-connected modern world; today’s
assumptions may not hold tomorrow.
Developing the As contended by Jabbar & Hussein (2017), the corporate purposes
corporate purposes inform on the future, the past and what the company “lives” for.
Without these, organisation would be rudderless.
Developing business As Jabbar & Hussein (2017) notes, an organization’s performance
strategies hangs on the strategies used, which however must be flexible in
today’s rapidly changing business environment.
Formulating Strategic Leadership and Practice (n.d., p.12) identifies (p.12) key
leadership strategy areas of leadership including vision, ethics, empowerment of
and shaping culture people, leadership principles, understanding and developing the
human resource, multiplying effectiveness, and performance
management. A strategy shaping of leadership and organisational
culture is a particularly important in the strategic leadership
framework.
Executing and An unexecuted strategy wastes resources. A stagnant strategy may
evaluating the lead in the incorrect direction hence the need for its constant
strategy. evaluation.

Table: 6
Manager vs Leaders in the 21st Century
Source: Subba & Kumar (n.d.)

Manager Leader
Administers Innovates
A copy Original
Preserves Develops
Focusses on Systems and Structures Focusses on People
Depend On control Inspires trust
Short-range view Long-range view
Questions how and when Questions what and why
Watches the bottom line Eye on the horizon
Replicates Initiates
Accepts the Status Quo Challenges the Status Quo
Traditional good soldier Own person
Does things right Does the right thing